Welcome to Wednesday and your
NCMS Morning Rounds.
July 22, 2020
It’s Practice Survey Week! The NCMS, NC Medical Group Management Association and Curi have been tracking vital practice information statewide since the beginning of the current pandemic. Your responses to this survey – now being sent every other week – has helped to inform our advocacy and resource development around personal protective equipment, telehealth, finances and wellness. Please take just a moment to share your practice’s information so we can continue to collect meaningful data. Results are shared in your NCMS Morning Rounds. Take the survey.
Join Our Two Physician Legislators for a Town Hall Forum
Did you know that of the 170 NC General Assembly legislators, only two are physicians? Please join us for an NCMS Town Hall Forum with your legislators and NCMS physician colleagues Rep. Perrin Jones, MD (R-Pitt) and Rep. Kristin Baker, MD (R-Cabarrus), to learn more about their health policy perspectives.
The discussion will be held via Zoom on Monday, July 27 from 6 to 7 p.m. and will be moderated by NCMS Past President Robert ‘Charlie’ Monteiro, MD.
Please submit questions or topics you would like the legislators to address to NCMS Director of Legislative Relations Sue Ann Forrest, MPA, at [email protected] prior to the meeting.
IRS Attempts to Clarify Provider Relief Fund Taxation
Last week, the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) provided updated information through this ‘Frequently Asked Questions About Taxation of Provider Relief Funds’ regarding taxation of the CARES Act Provider Relief Funds (PRF) to for-profit organizations.
According to the IRS guidance, these funds are considered gross income and are subject to taxation under section 61 of the Code. These funds are not excluded under the qualified disaster relief payment defined in section 139 of the Code.
Health care providers/organizations that are considered tax-exempt as described in section 501(c) of the Code are typically exempt from federal income taxation under section 501(a). However, these funds could be subject to tax if the funds are used for expenses or lost revenue attributable to an unrelated business.
The NCMS is actively advocating for clarification and correction on the tax implications for health care providers receiving Provider Relief Funds during this public health emergency. Watch your NCMS Morning Rounds for any new information as it becomes available.
New Resource to Help Find Quality Addiction Treatment
A new online platform designed to help those seeking addiction treatment find the facility that would be best suited for them, launched yesterday, Tuesday, July 21 in North Carolina. ATLAS™ includes a consumer-friendly level of care assessment aligned with the ASAM Criteria and provides a directory of addiction treatment facilities across the state with transparent data on the use of evidence-based medical practices and patient experiences.
ATLAS was designed by Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in America, to meet the oftentimes difficult process of finding high-quality addiction treatment.
ATLAS measures addiction treatment facilities’ use of best practices through a combination of validated data sources and reports the results of these measures publicly. ATLAS will also continue to collect feedback from patients in a crowdsource fashion and will display this information publicly once a minimum threshold of 20 patients have submitted responses on their experience at a given facility.
North Carolina is one of six states launching the ATLAS platform as part of a pilot project.
Learn more about this platform.
In the News
The Next Generation of Face Masks Could Be See-through and Self-cleaning (and They Might Not Fog Your Glasses), The Advisory Board Forum, 7-16-20
Learning Opportunity
This week’s NCMS Foundation Kanof Institute for Physician Leadership (KIPL) Power Hour will focus on ‘Treating Allergies and Asthma During the COVID-19 Pandemic.’ Please register and tune in this Friday, July 24 from 1 to 2 p.m. for the next in our series of conversations around timely topics of importance. Learn more and register here.
If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!